Prevent review: steps in the right direction

The recent comments made by the Home Secretary, appear to be the beginning of a strong stance on university extremism. Theresa May, in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, stated that “universities were not taking the issue of radicalisation seriously enough”.

We at Student Rights have been championing this perspective for the past two years and welcome this statement. May’s claim that universities have not been “campuses” gets to the heart of the issue. Thus far when confronted about extremist activities on campuses, universities have hide behind weak excuses for their inaction. They cite the necessity to protect the freedom of speech and the autonomy of the student unions, which societies often involved in extremism are part of, all the while allowing extremism to be fostered on their campuses.

The Home Secretary will demand that universities “do more to confront this threat”.This shows that finally the Government are becoming more resolute with regards to dealing with extremism on campus. Student Rights now hopes the 40 universities which are at “particular risk” of student radicalisation on their campuses will no longer be permitted to neglect their duty to protect. The criticism of FOSIS, the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, is another welcome aspect of the upcoming Prevent review.

FOSIS for a long while has played host to and has facilitated extremism. The key issue that Student Rights has been working to combat thus far is the prevalence of extremist preachers on campuses. Individuals harbouring hateful views have their right to proselytise on campuses ‘defended’ while they do so with the sole “objective of radicalising and recruiting students”. Groups such as Hizb-ut-Tahrir have been rightly named in the report as one of the key figures in such activity.

HamzaTzortzis, until recently a member of the group, is regularly given platform on campuses and disseminates his venomous views. Individuals associated with Tzortzis, such as AbdurRaheem Green, are also often regular invited to speak at university Islamic societies. One of the starkest examples of the presence of Hizb-ut-Tahrir on campuses is the case of Reza Pankhurst. Pankhurst, who is a member of the London School of Economics teaching staff and has previously served jail time in Egypt for being a member of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, is still alleged to be a “senior figure” in the organisation.

The Prevent review displays progress in the fight against campus extremism and finally indicates that government policy is now nearing the right path. The status quo in universities has resulted in many instances of terror and the tacit neglect of campus extremism cannot be allowed to continue. The government is now making correct statements but it must take the right actions.

On 5 March 2018, the King’s College Libertarian Society attempted to host an event featuring Israeli speaker Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute and controversial YouTube vlogger ‘Sargon of Akkad’ (Carl Benjamin). Both speakers were due to talk about freedom of expression as well as ‘objectivism’, the libertarian philosophy created by Russian-American author Ayn Rand. The protest group set up on Facebook called for the speakers to be no-platformed and described them as ‘white supremacists’, ‘neo-fascists’, ‘nazis’ and ‘alt-right’. Off-campus groups, including black-clad activists from the hardline “left-wing, anti-fascist” street movement Antifa, were also present. Unlike the student societies, Antifa violently shut down the event and forced it to be cancelled. The organisers of the event faced other institutional obstacles. The appalling scenes at KCL last night are evidence of an encroaching culture of intolerance and hostility towards free speech on university campuses in Britain.

On Monday 12 February, former Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Likud Party politician Dan Meridor gave a speech entitled ‘Threats and Challenges’ to students at the Strand Campus of King’s College London (KCL). This event, which was jointly organised by The Pinsker Centre and the KCL and City University Israel Societies, was met with vocal protests by students and activists affiliated to anti-Israel groups. Video footage shows how a crowd of around sixty protestors waved placards and sought to disrupt the event by screaming loudly outside the entrance to the lecture room where Meridor was speaking. Some protestors were reported to have photographed members of the audience leaving the room. The Union of Jewish Students (UJS) condemned what it called “disgraceful scenes”, and the President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews claimed that he would be in contact with the Principal of KCL to “gain assurances that there will be no repeat”. We hope that KCL can fully ensure that future speakers, Israeli or otherwise, are not subject to similar attempts at disruption in future, nor their audience subject to unacceptable levels of hostility and intimidation.

In the lead up to Holocaust Memorial Day 2018, the UK government has announced that it will partner with the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) and the Holocaust Education Trust (HET) in sending 200 university students from across the UK to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the former Nazi extermination camp in Poland. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department for Education have pledged to devote £144,000 to the project. They aim to train participants so that they can educate fellow students about anti-Semitism when they return to UK campuses. Student Rights is extremely supportive of the government’s decision to support students in this way. We hope it has a tangible impact at all levels of student life across the UK.